About the Download Section on Foscam web site

If you have visited the Foscam Download Page lately, you may have noticed that the firmwares files are now composed of a WebUI firmware, an explanation.txt and another notice.txt file, but no system firmware!



The explanation.txt says:

Dear customer:
there may be lose of data when you download the file because of the network, and if there is data lose of system fimware, it will cause a serious consequence.
so we decide not to offer the system firmware download, thank you.

The notice.txt says:

If you use this firmware,the must notice that:
 1 the system firmware version is:11.14.2.17
 2 and the compressed file size is: 788,655 bytes
if the two conditions cannot be met,you can not use
the APP firmware to upgrade.

So we're back to the old time where we could only get new firmwares by contacting Foscam directly.

I don't see why the precaution they take by providing the file size of the WebUI would not be good enough for the system firmware as well.

It's regrettable because, along with their responsive tech. support, firmware availability was an distinctive advantage over the other ip camera brands of this class.

On the other hand, there is a suspicion that recent productions of the models FI8908W and FI8904W may have been subject to some subtle hardware changes inside requiring different system firmware for the new batches. The reason I'm suspecting this is that my old recovery files that worked with my FI8908W (produced in July 2009) have now stopped working with recent FI8908W which require newer files (I've got now the 2 set of recovery files available in the recovery page). I'll try to find out more about this.

I suggest that you email them to request the system firmwares files back online and provide the compressed file size for it as they already do for the WebUI firmware, or an MD5 checksum ....

Maybe, with enough feedbacks they will come back to some reason.

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Rovio with a Chinese twist

Well, the comparison is presumptuous and a bit insulting to Rovio, but reading about its numerous criticisms , this might well be one of the alternative left (aside Spykee). Too bad Woowee abandoned the Spyball project !

An early version of Roomba vacuum cleaner with a Pan and Tilt wireless IP Camera mounted on it.

The CVOA-G182 from Chinavasion.com (€382.92) should make everybody happy: housewife and geeky husband alike.

It can be important to consider that only the pan-and-tilt camera can be remote-controlled here. The robot base it just a Roomba and, as such, will bang its way around the room while -kind of- cleaning according to its programmed routine and front bumper.

There's no owners feedback on it yet, but I wonder if it is smart enough to stop in front of the sofa when the camera is mounted or if it will try to force its way under. The camera dome can be unplugged easily though.

iRobot, the maker of Roomba, made a variant called ConnectR, which is presented as a virtual visiting robot. This one is not equipped with a brush but can be driven from an internet connection, comes with VoIP speakers and an integrated IP cam as well. Much like a Rovio, with a less appealing design.

It seems to be "on the market" since 2007, but judging by the selling price (around $500), and the confidential presentation on iRobot web site, it probably never really took off.

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Foscam Firmware: 11.14.2.17 once again!

There is a newer firmware on Foscam web site.
It will still show versions 11.14.2.17 and 2.4.8.14 but the time stamps of these files are from June and July 2010! (The last 11.14.2.17 was from May)


The main change is in the Web-UI that now includes PTZ settings for controling the patrol speed..

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Big fingers friendly app

I recently got totally converted to Swype for Android. This is by far the best Android keyboard alternative and obviously will be found standard on many upcoming phone models.

By default the Android keyboard is just a bit too small for fat fingers, and the alternatives I tried, although nicer-looking, did not help much.


So I was prepared to install, test, and un-install this one within a few minutes just like the ones before. Instead, I decided to keep it event though it occupies 10 Mb of my Spica's small memory.

While you can still use it as a standard keyboard -and the keys are larger as well which is great - you're actually supposed to swipe your finger from one letter to the other until the word is complete. Almost instantaneously, Swype will suggest a word on screen with a high success rate. You do not even need to be very accurate, which is a plus when texting in a transport.

There are easy and well though methods for producing punctuation, adding a word in the dictionary, forming a double letter,... which you can all learn from the integrated interactive tutorial.

There's also a shortcut key to swap quickly from one input language to another.
In brief nothing seems to be missing and  you'll be amazed to see how faster you can type with this little revolution.

The beta phase for Android is over but you may find some leaked versions here and there, just beware that you need the one matching your screen resolution (HVGA, WVGA, ...)

In conclusion this is the app to buy if you ever buy one on the Market!

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